Shaping the Circle

EXHIBIT:
Cultural Conflict and Acculturation

Anonymous letter to directors of Das Deutsche Haus, urging them to change the building's name.

It is a better name.

WORLD WAR I

Since [the] basic cultural conflict between the Germans and the
puritanically influenced native element was already apparent prior to
1914, the shift of American preferences and political
orientation toward Great Britain at the outbreak of the war in Europe sharpened
the differences and widened the gulf between the two groups. . . . The World
War and its aftermath deeply affected the German-Americans in Indianapolis and
throughout the country. It caused a sharp curtailment of German activities
and a decline in German organizations and institutions. The Twenty-fifth
Annual Saengerfest of the Northeastern Saengerbund was postponed; most
German-language papers were suspended; the names
of many groups were Americanized. . . . [In 1918]
the name of "Das Deutsche Haus" was dropped and changed to "Athenaeum." The
Maennerchor temporarily dubbed itself the
"Academy of Music," and the German lettering on the front of Trinity
Lutheran was changed to English. There was a nationwide movement to eliminate
German names from public buildings, streets and parks, and there were numerous
Schmidts who became Smiths, and Muellers who became Millers. . . . These
efforts to placate the rest of the community paid dividends, for there were
no public demonstrations against the Germans in Indianapolis as there were in
other cities. Nor were there any overt acts of oppression. Compared to other
Midwestern cities both the Germans and the nativists in Indianapolis behaved
themselves and remained, at least outwardly, at peace with one another.